Being a native New Yorker, I've seen a lot of knock-off products, such as designer clothes, bags, fragrances, watches, DVDs, and even sneakers. But I had no idea cell phones were a part of the list of bootleg products.

According to Phone Scoop and RCR Wireless News,federal authorities in New York have uncovered nearly 20,000 counterfeit phones, many of them posing as popular brand names from major handset manufacturers. The phones were seized in March 2008 from a company called Perfect Connection, located in Queens, N.Y. Among the counterfeit handsets were 5,503 Sony Ericsson, 5,249 Samsung, 4,311 LG, 3,827 Motorola, and 798 Nokia phones.

A lawsuit was filed by Benton J. Campbell, U.S. Attorney for the eastern district of New York, who identified approximately 2,000 counterfeit Sony Ericsson headsets and 462 boxes of counterfeit accessories along with $210,990 in cash.

In connection, the authorities also found an undisclosed number of Motorola universal cell phone chargers with the Underwriters Laboratory mark. According to the Phone Scoop account, "The chargers have not been tested for safety and don't have the right to bear the UL logo." One that was mentioned specifically, the Motor Trend minicharger model MT-M2.

About the author

When not juggling the dual demands of parenthood and playing basketball, Joseph is a life-long Manhattanite who can be found testing the latest tech in the CNET Labs and developing new benchmarks and testing methodologies.
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